Middle East & North Africa A first-time PISA participant, Lebanon scored poorly in all three subjects. • Student performance is on average more than 3 years of schooling1 below the OECD average. Performance in Reading is especially low, 37 points below the MENA average. • For all three subjects, roughly two thirds of the students do not meet the basic proficiency level, which places them at risk of exclusion. What may be driving poor performance? • Socioeconomic background: There are differences equivalent to nearly 3 years of schooling between students at the top and low income quintiles. • School type and location: Student performance in private schools is roughly 2 years of schooling better than in public schools, while differences equivalent to one year of schooling exist between student performance in urban and rural schools. Preschool: The performance of students who completed more than one year of preschool is one year of schooling ahead of those with no preschool education. • School & Classroom: Students in the top quintile of the Sense of Belonging Index2 are more than three years of schooling ahead of those in the bottom quintile. Closely related is the Disciplinary Climate Index2, for which the difference in scores between the top and bottom quintiles is equivalent to one year of schooling. • Teachers: Teacher-Directed Instruction2 is associated with better student performance (48 points difference in Science scores between the top and bottom quintiles in this Index). • The Syrian refugee influx has had an impact on the overall education systems. Yet, the very small number of Syrians in secondary school does not allow identifying any impact on the PISA results. 1 ≈ Middle East & North Africa ≈ ≈ LEBANON BENCHMARKING AGAINST MENA & OECD ≈ Middle East & North Africa PISA is the OECD’s benchmarking tool to assess • RACE Support Project achievement and application of key knowledge and • Emergency Education System skills of 15 year-olds. PISA tests proficiency in Stabilization Project mathematics, reading, science, and problem-solving. • Education Development Project II It was launched in 2000 and is conducted every three years, with a focus on one of the subjects in each round. In 2015, the focus is on Science. The • RACE - Research for Results test was taken by representative samples from 72 3 countries, including nearly 540,000 students. Six MENA countries participated in this PISA round: • SABER-Student Assessment (2013) Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia and the • SABER-Teachers (2010) United Arab Emirates. 3 Systems Approach for Better Education Results Note: In 2015, the OECD introduced several improvements to the design, administration, and scaling of PISA. For the most part, these changes did not affect the comparability of the 2015 results with those for previous assessments. For further information and implications for analyses of PISA data, please consult the PISA 2015 international report. Source: OECD, 2016. PISA 2015 Results (Volume 1): Excellence and Equity in Education. Paris: OECD.